Home buyers may be finding a window of opportunity to lock in lower rates. Mortgage rates fell this week, after several weeks of moderating, Freddie Mac reports.“Mortgage rates declined this week amid a steep sell-off in U.S. stocks,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “This week’s rate reaction to the volatile stock market is a welcome relief to prospective home buyers who have recently experienced rising rates and rising
End-of-year negotiations among federal lawmakers have resulted in another short-term extension of the National Flood Insurance Program.Homeowners and buyers in areas at risk of flooding can get insurance through Dec. 21, when the program is scheduled to expire.Efforts are underway to secure longer-term authorization, possibly until the end of September, as part of a temporary budget measure known as a continuing resolution. The National Associa
More investors are starting to back away from flipping homes as home price gains slow. The average home flipping returns dropped to a 6.5-year low in the third quarter, and the share of flips was down 12 percent, according to a newly released report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data provider.A total of 45,901 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the third quarter, the lowest level since the first quarter of 2015. Homes flipp
Homeowners are still finding plenty of equity in their homes, but the gains are slowing. Homeowners with a mortgage saw their equity rise by 9.4 percent over the past year, according to CoreLogic’s latest Home Equity Report. The average homeowner gained $12,400 in home equity between the third quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018. That is lower than the more than $16,000 year-over-year gain in equity reported in the second quarter, Cor
From interest rate hikes to climate change, shifts in the physical, political, and economic worlds are having effects on the real estate industry. Some of these developments affect the residential and commercial sides of the business differently, while others are common challenges all practitioners will face. As 2019 approaches, here are a few short-term and long-term hurdles you should know.Short-term Issues 1. Interest rates and the economy: T
Buyers are spending significant time trying to find the perfect home. Fifty-four percent of active buyers say they’ve been trying to find the right home for three months or longer, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Trends Report poll.Buyers say the biggest delays that are stretching out their home search is they can’t find a home at an affordable price (49%), followed by not being able to find a home with the d
Jim Cronin and his wife, Monte, hadn’t planned on moving from the little yellow house in Paradise, Calif., where they had lived since getting married more than 13 years ago. They once considered trading up to a bigger property but decided it was the best place to raise their 6-year-old son. Then, their plans for the future vanished on Nov. 8, when the biggest wildfire in California history incinerated most of the town and left thousands of peop
Is a chill in the air now being felt in the luxury housing market too? Luxury home prices saw their smallest increases in nearly two years. And those in the luxury market are now blaming a culprit familiar to other sectors of the market for slowing sales and prices: higher mortgage rates.This week, luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers reported a 13 percent drop from last year in the number of signed contracts for homes in the fiscal fourth quarter, a
The best places to retire are in the suburbs near a large metro area, according to a new analysis by GOBankingRates, a personal finance website. The cost of living may be higher near a big city, but a long list of nearby amenities makes these areas more livable when riding out your golden years, according to the analysis.GOBankingRates analyzed the 18 largest cities in the nation to identify the neighborhoods that had a low median listing price,
Buyers will likely see a significant jump in their monthly payments next year. Mortgage payments are forecasted to rise 8.4 percent in 2019 due to the increase in mortgage rates, according to S&P Global Ratings’ latest housing market update.Over the last year, the mortgage payment growth rate has exceeded the numbers seen for home price appreciation. That trend is expected to continue into next year.Housing affordability remains a chief co
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